


Let's Have a Good Time

by Signel_chan



Series: Let's Live Life [5]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Humanstuck, mentions of dead babies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-27
Updated: 2014-01-27
Packaged: 2018-01-10 05:05:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1155435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signel_chan/pseuds/Signel_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two lovers travel home after a year of terrible events, and spend the holidays with four friends they've neglected for six years. Upsetting and inappropriate things happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let's Have a Good Time

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This fic takes place between Let's Play Hide-n-Seek and Let's Play Mind Games (yeah, I know, way old fics in the series)! If you haven't read either of those, especially the first one, I'd suggest you do that before you read this one!  
> If you have read those and you're questioning why I'm writing a fic that takes place in the time between the stairs incident and the Pokemon naming thing, you'll be happy to know it's NOT because I'm trying to make anyone feel any pain for Vriska, who fell down the stairs, and Tavros, who pushed her. It's because there are other characters that needed their place in this storyverse told, and this was the best was I could think of. (There is quite a bit of depressing dead baby talk, just so you know.)

Replacing as good of a teammate as Tavros had been wasn't going to be easy for Aradia—after all, she had won several long campaigns in Dungeons and Dragons with him by her side. But when he, and the entire other team, left for greener pastures after years of playing, she needed to find someone to fill in for him to hone her skills more. What she didn't expect was her new partner, who happened to be the guy she had been dating for a while, to bring his own group of dedicated D & D players with him.

Sollux, Nepeta, and Equius may not have been anything as good as Tavros, Vriska, and Terezi had been, but they were decent enough to play with. And the more they played, still hanging out in Vriska's mom's basement although her daughter was long gone, the better they all got at it, until it was virtually impossible to tell the difference between the campaigns; the only real change was there weren't lawyer demons and pirate wenches, but rather hackers and characters who were skilled with riding animals.

The years passed by, and the venue changed from the basement Aradia had known all too well to a spare bedroom in the house her and Sollux now shared. Visiting that spacious basement for the last time had made her cry, not only because it was the changing of something she had grown used to, but because it was like slamming the door on part of her past that she didn't want to lose, as well as taking some of the last memories of her old friends away. Since they had left, none of them had even bothered contacting her, so she had no idea what was going on with them. All she did know was her Thursday night dungeon crawls were moving to an above-ground room that wasn't at some virtual stranger's house.

Turns out that their D & D playing was the only thing stopping the house from being sold, and it was mere weeks after relocating that the house they once knew so dearly was owned by someone they definitely didn't know. Other than the location change, nothing else was different in their playing, and the four of them became just as close as the original four (and the four before them, substituting Tavros for Eridan, before them). 

All it took was a ringing of the doorbell the week before Christmas for everything to change. It had been over nine years since graduation, six years since the original exodus from the group, but it took all of five seconds—spent looking through a window and rushing to open the door—to erase all evidence of Vriska and Tavros spending any time away from the town they once called home. “What are you two doing here?” Aradia, the one who had gotten the door, asked, grabbing the two into separate hugs and making mental notes of everything that was different about them. “How did you find this place? Where are you staying? This is such a surprise!”

“We're here visiting, duh,” Vriska replied, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Although she had a smile on her face, there was something off about her, something that seemed upset that she was quite obviously trying to hide. “Found this place with the help of some friends, and we'll be staying here if you don't mind.”

“Don't mind? I haven't prepared a thing!”

Tavros, grabbing Vriska and holding her closely after Aradia's frantic hugging was over, gave an awkward laugh that was meant to seem cheerful but, like Vriska's smile, was disguising something less happy. “You didn't have to. Your friends took care of everything.”

“We sure did.” Standing in the doorway to the dining room that Aradia had rushed out of, Sollux, Equius, and Nepeta all watched the three at the front door. “I figured that you'd stress yourself out if you knew I'd invited them to come stay with us for a while, so we took care of it. That's okay though, isn't it?” It was such a Sollux thing to do, hiding a surprise this big until it revealed itself, and she was so happy to have him around. “I see those happy tears there, Aradia. Go on, cry.”

“Cry? I think I'm going to pass out from the excitement!” Aradia had streams of tears running down her cheeks as she went from hugging the newcomers to attacking the man who had set everything up. “This is such a great surprise! And just in time for the holidays!”

“Yeah, it's like that was the plan all along,” Sollux said, before grabbing Aradia to calm her down. “Except, ahem, the plan was very nearly destroyed not too long ago, now wasn't it?”

The attention turned from the hysterical woman to the duo standing just inside the front door. “We're really going to bring that up now?” Vriska asked, her voice lowering as she spoke. “I thought that maybe, just maybe, we could get through a couple hours before all that got brought up. We're tired from the drive here. Don't make us spill the details of the past few months right now, okay?”

“Past few months? I want to know how you've been for the past nine years!” Aradia broke free of Sollux's grip and rushed back to her friends, ushering them to the nearest couch before sitting across from them and putting her elbows on her knees and chin on her hands. “I can understand you're tired, but please, start talking. You're not going to be here all that long, are you?”

“For the next couple weeks, and we'll do enough talking to let you know everything, but please, don't make us talk—“ Tavros tried to get Aradia to stop pestering them, but even his fiercest protest couldn't get her to stop staring at them expectantly. “—fine. It's not like Sollux doesn't already know part of it.”

“Promised I wouldn't tell her, and so I didn't.” Sollux, sitting down next to Aradia, gave a small shrug. “Besides, all I heard was that Vriska fell down some stairs and royally fucked up her knees. Big deal.”

Also sitting down on the couch across from the visitors, Nepeta took one look at her old neighbor Tavros and his girlfriend and gave a sad smile. “I think there's more to it than the knees. I've seen pictures of Vriska, and I know that she doesn't normally look so...broken.”

“An injury of that kind would break someone. Being unable to do anything but sit and be in pain would render anyone, no matter how strong, useless and broken. Don't assume there's anything else when there most likely isn't.” Always the overprotective friend, Equius took his place right next to Nepeta and looked at the two across from them. “However, I used to know you fairly well, Tavros, and you seem to be just as broken as the woman you're with.”

“Because I am.” Tavros put a hand on Vriska's thigh as if he was trying to keep her safe, before continuing to speak. “And it's my fault that we're both so broken, kind of. I mean, it was me who pushed her down the stairs, but it was an accident...”

The four on the other side of the room gave a collective gasp. “You pushed her? How could you?” Aradia asked, taking the words right out of everyone else's mouths. “How could you hurt your girlfriend like that?”

“It was an accident, I said! It was dark and I got startled and the stairs happened to be right there!” He squeezed her leg tighter, and Vriska sniffled, breaking her strong appearance with tears and wide eyes. “It wasn't like I wanted to tear up her knees and kill our baby!”

Another collective gasp, but no words followed, allowing Vriska's soft crying to be heard by everyone. Finally, after a couple of minutes, Aradia spoke again. “Your baby? Why didn't any of us know about that fact?”

“We didn't want to bring it up with any of you until we came out here and we could surprise you.” As Vriska's crying became louder, Tavros continued to speak. “But then that accident happened and it just became a really sore spot, and we almost didn't come because she's just a shell of herself, really. She insisted on coming, though, because she said it would be better to get away from home for a while.” He let go of her leg and wrapped his arm around her to give her a hug, which she very obviously needed. “And this is why she didn't want to talk right away.”

“I wouldn't have pressed the issue if I had known.” Unsure of what course of action to take, Aradia just sat still, aside from changing her position from an expectant one to a concerned one, with her hands in her lap and her eyes focusing anywhere but her friends. “That's really tragic and sad to hear about after being so excited.”

“You don't even understand...” Vriska said, her voice cracking with sadness. “You don't know what it's like to hear what happened and remember it, to remember the pain of both knees being absolutely fucked and—and the even worse pain of learning your baby died because you fucking fell down stairs and forced her to come into a world she wasn't ready for and...fuck!” She was crying incredibly hard as she went on. “You don't know what it's like to hold a dead child in your arms, a kid you didn't want but you fucking loved, someone you would have given your life for but instead you took the life from. She took one breath, one fucking breath, and she was dead! And you wanted to hear everything right away and make me relive that again!”

“Vriska, calm down, it's okay. They didn't know.” With as hard as he was hugging her, Tavros had hoped that he could get Vriska to stop crying, but it didn't help and he had to resort to standing up and getting in her face. “Hey, stop. Please. You're going to make me cry if you keep this up.”

She dissolved into unintelligible babbling at that point, the occasional curse coming out that everyone could understand. From the other couch, everyone was looking between themselves, unsure of what to do in the situation they had found themselves in. “Maybe we should leave them be for a bit,” Equius suggested, “and maybe when we return things will have calmed down.”

“You think we should abandon them in their time of need? I think not, mister!” Nepeta replied, pressing her shoulder into her best friend's. “Besides, what if we're needed here and we're off elsewhere? That would be pretty wrong of us!”

“Wrong, yes. But maybe wrong is right in this situation.”

“We're not leaving.” Aradia, having gotten over her excitement and over-the-top feelings, got to her feet, and walked towards her friends. “Guys, do you need big hugs from someone who hasn't seen you in ages, or do you need your space?”

Both Tavros and Vriska offered her an arm for hugging, so she could hug them both at once. “We need our baby back, that's what we need,” Tavros said in a solemn voice, barely loud enough for Aradia to hear him over Vriska's crying. “But since that won't happen, we just need to heal. We need to move past what happened, and that's going to be hard when she gets set off like this all the time.”

“All the time?” Aradia's eyes widened. “That's got to suck. The Vriska I remember was so strong and moved past everything so easily.”

Following several loud sniffles, Vriska was able to speak in her own defense: “I am strong, but I'm also broken. So, so broken. You don't know what it's like. You really don't.”

“I know I don't, but I know that you know that your baby's fine wherever, uh, she is.” She snuggled her upset friend a bit more, somewhat pushing Tavros away. “And I know you know that she wouldn't want you hurting like this.”

“If she didn't want it, she wouldn't be dead.” Instead of beginning to cry again, Vriska wrapped both her arms around Aradia the best she could. “We'd have brought our little baby with us, and you all would be so surprised and happy for us...”

“We would have been, but you know we're more than happy to just have you two here.”

From where he had been pushed to with all the hugging, Tavros gave a small chuckle. “We figured that one of you would know how to cheer Vriska up, so that's why we ultimately decided that this trip would be worth it. Someone here would make her stop hurting so much about losing the little one, and you've managed to do it.”

“What? Oh no, I'm just saying what needs to be said. I'm not trying to make her hurt less.” Aradia broke away from Vriska and took several steps backwards. “I'm just being an inspirational friend to someone who lost something so important to her.”

“And that's making her hurt less. One of our friends back home, her name is Jade, she's been through a lot of losing kids, but whenever she acts like she knows what it feels like to lose one like this, it just makes things worse. You're being so real, so honest, and it...” Tavros coughed to clear his throat from a lump that was beginning to form. “It means a lot. And you've made coming here worth it.”

From on the other couch, where very little of the conversation was being heard, Sollux turned to the best friends he was sitting with. “Do you think this is going to work out? I didn't really know either of those two so I didn't know if bringing them here was a good idea.”

“We only knew Tavros, really, and we've all heard what Aradia says about Vriska. Either their stay here will be like this the whole time, or there will be some fun.” Nepeta shook Equius' head a bit as she spoke. “But either way, it was a good idea. They obviously need some good friends, and, well, the four of us are the best friends anyone could ever have.”

“Okay, you better be right, because I paid for most of their trip and I'm going to be pissed if they made me waste my money.” Although Sollux sounded upset, he spoke with a smile and his apparent lisp, and the others smiled in response. “Let's just hope they don't cry the whole time or else I may lose my shit.”

* * *

The second day of the trip went much better than the first one, and the third day much better than that. It seemed that the stress of a cross-country road trip had made Vriska more emotionally unstable than she had normally been, and by the beginning of the fourth day she was almost the girl that Aradia had played D & D with years before. The only real difference was her avoidance of having to move from wherever she had gotten comfortable, and that was excusable because of the braces on her legs holding her healing knees in place. Aside from that, it was just like the Vriska of old was there, as well as a socially-stronger Tavros with her.

They spent those two days after the first playing a lot as a group, everyone excited to see how the two who had left the game so long before would hold up in the time of new rules and characters. It was a steep learning curve, but they seemed to enjoy themselves even if they were absolutely overwhelmed with all the changes to the game that had brought them together.

That fourth day was the first one where they did something besides play, and it was only at Nepeta's insistence. She was very fond of her character, but she could only tolerate so much D & D in so little time without losing her mind and wanting to quit the game. “Maybe we can go into town today and show them what's all changed,” she suggested, as they sat around the table set up with all the gaming tools. “Maybe drive by the school, maybe go show them all the old hangouts, maybe show them where their parents live...”

“If it involves seeing my mom, I'm out.” Vriska shook her head and frowned. “I didn't come here to visit her, and I don't plan on seeing even a hair on her head. She's a bitch and you all know it.”

“She let us keep our campaigning in her basement for who knows how long after you left, so she's not that big of a bitch,” Sollux snapped back, before quickly apologizing. “I mean, she was a bitch to you, from what we've heard, but she wasn't one to us.”

“And because she was one to me, she doesn't get to see me. Easy as that.”

Nepeta waved her arms to divert the attention back to herself. “Okay, so no stopping by your mom's new place, Vriska. But we can at least drive by. And maybe we could stop by Tavros' parents' house an—“

“No. Not this trip. I don't want to be compared to my brother for what I've done.” This time it was Tavros shaking his head in disagreement. “Once my parents hear I'm responsible for my own kid dying, they'll never let me live it down.”

“Wait, they don't know about that?” Aradia asked, her mouth slightly open in shock. “Isn't that something you'd tell your parents right away?”

“We didn't tell them that we were having a baby, so there was no point in telling them that we killed it.” He shrugged. “And now we're not going to tell them it's dead, so let's not stop over there. In fact, let's not go anywhere near there.”

Equius cleared his throat so he could speak and bring the attention to him. “If it's any consolation to you, my father told me that your father told him that your brother has a dead child of his own.”

“Oh, right, that.” Dragging out one of her letters with a sigh, Aradia brought her mouth to its normal position and added: “Yeah, so my sister and your brother were apparently a thing. A thing that ended with heartbreak and my sister losing her mind and aborting their kid to spite Rufioh for leaving her for someone else.”

“Someone else being my older brother. Which is why my father was informed by your father, because he wasn't sure if my father would be accepting of having his son in a relationship with someone who was not only non-white, but also someone with a dead child.” The way he spoke, Equius sounded pained to even mention the skin color, but everyone present knew that it was a thing with that family to have prejudices against everyone who wasn't white. The fact that it was a gay relationship being dealt with meant even less than skin color. “He didn't mind, though, and so they're still together even now.”

“Obviously that asshole didn't care that much,” Tavros muttered, back on the topic of his brother's kid, “because I haven't heard that anything came out of it.”

Aradia thought for a second before replying. “My sister ran off to who-knows-where after it happened, so she's probably far from his mind. Not like that's an excuse for him not punishing her for doing that, but it's a start.” She paused, before clapping her hands together to change the topic. “Well visiting those homes is off-limits. Who thinks going out for a nice meal is a good idea? Because I think it would be a fantastic idea.”

“Oh yes, that's a wonderful idea. Let's go somewhere where someone will recognize us and then we'll be stuck talking to them for hours about what life far away from here is like.” There was very obvious sarcasm dripping from every word Vriska said, and although it was upsetting to Aradia that her idea had been shot down, it was also nice to hear the broken woman acting so much like her younger self. “I'm sure no one else had the drive to leave this place.”

“You're way wrong there, miss Serket!” Nepeta got out of her chair and walked around the table to stand behind Vriska and play with her hair. “We're the only ones who haven't left yet. Everyone else decided away was best not long after you two did.”

That earned a laugh from the blonde, who tilted her head up slightly to try and look at who was behind her. “Yeah right. I'm sure that dumb Eridan stayed here. He had zero inspiration to do anything except bang girls.”

“And that's why he's gone. Last we heard, he met someone online and went to wherever she was. No idea what happened after that.” Sollux gave two thumbs up in approval at his words. “I never liked him. He was a total dick to me and I didn't even go to school with you guys.”

“He pulled a Terezi and ditched town for the call of internet relationships.”

“Funny story about _that_ , Aradia,” Tavros said, “because we happen to know where Terezi lives. Man, you all should have seen Vriska's face when she saw her best friend living just across town from where we live.”

Everyone laughed, before Aradia asked if it really was true. “Fuck yeah it is. She's going blind which sucks, but she's still the same great woman she was back in our old campaigning days.” Vriska smiled, thinking about Terezi and the moment when she had learned that they were living so close to each other. “I wish she had come with us, but her and her man Karkat had things to do. Grown up things.”

There was more laughter, interrupted with Tavros sneezing several times. “Uh, Nepeta, could you maybe step away? You smell really strongly of cat...” His voice had sounded somewhat scratchy as he had spoken before, but now it was very obviously altered as he sneezed again. “I can't believe I forgot to take something for this before I saw you today.”

“Right, cat allergy. I'll back off.” Nepeta dropped the strands of Vriska's hair she was playing with and went back to her chair. “Sorry about that. When you don't ever act like you're allergic to cats, it's hard for me to remember that you are.”

“Not your fault. I don't remember I am most days until I forget to take something for it and encounter someone with a cat.” He rubbed at his eyes, which were reddened by the presence of cat fur in the air thanks to Nepeta. “I don't think I want to go anywhere today, now that I'm going to be miserable like this. Let's just spend today here again, and maybe tomorrow we can go out on the town for lunch.”

Since no one wanted anyone of the group to be miserable while spending time together, they all agreed that staying home was the best course of action, and so another day of continuing on with their campaign occurred. It worked out for the best, because late in the day the winds started howling and the snow started to fall, and they were greeted with several inches of powder that they would have had to journey through if they had gone out.

* * *

Christmas was a few days away, and as was group tradition, the four who spent their time at the house were going to celebrate together. “Are you two going to be leaving before Christmas?” Sollux asked as he and Equius pulled out the boxes of decorations. “I figured that was the plan, but if it's not, just say so.”

“Yeah, I think we're going to stay here for the holidays. We'll leave before New Year's, but we'll definitely stay for Christmas.” Tavros, trying to help with the set-up but getting outclassed by the much stronger men he was working with, said while looking in Vriska's direction. “But don't think that means you need to accommodate any sort of other holiday stuff into your celebrations.”

“Don't we, though? Aradia always said that Vriska didn't celebrate Christmas.” Equius, setting a box down, also looked at the blonde who was seated on the couch with her legs propped up. “We simply cannot ignore her beliefs if she has them.”

“I'm fine with Christmas,” Vriska said, waving a hand above her head. “Gave up on my religion way back before I moved from home, so Christmas is perfectly fine.”

“We've got a menorah around here somewhere if you want it out. So maybe your holiday was forever ago, but it's the thought that counts, right?” Aradia, who was digging through one of the already brought boxes with Nepeta, looked to her friend who sent dagger eyes back. “Maybe not. I thought you loved your holiday. Eight days of gifts, remember?”

Vriska rolled her eyes, setting her hand back in her lap. “Yeah, eight days of gifts is great and all, but that was my mom's thing and I didn't care for it. I didn't even like the story.”

“The story? You never said there was a story!” Whatever bauble or decoration Aradia had pulled out was placed back where it belonged as she completely focused on Vriska. “Can you tell us it? We could use some holiday education.”

“No. Everyone's probably heard it before and it's dumb. Then again, it's for a religion I don't agree with.” She flipped her bangs out of her eyes and looked around the room, where everyone, not just Aradia, had their eyes on her. “Oh come on. Don't make me do it. Just keep doing the Christmas thing. That's perfectly fine with me.”

“If she insists it's fine, we shouldn't push the issue any further than we have,” Equius said, resuming the movement of his box. “Last thing we want to do is trigger another mental breakdown within her fragile mind.”

Everyone agreed with him that a crying Vriska was not something they wanted to deal with, and so the setup continued, with everyone helping in some way, aside from Vriska herself, who just sat and watched the entire thing. She wanted no part of putting the tree together, nor did she have any interest in hanging ornaments up on it when it was all set up. “Come on, aren't you going to do something?” Aradia asked, slightly concerned that her friend was mentally separating herself from everyone else. “Don't you want to hang anything up?”

It took a minute, but Vriska's response was nearly silent. “I want to hang something up for summer.” She was asked to repeat herself, which she did much louder and with a different choice of words. “I want to hang something up for my dead daughter.”

“What did you say the first time?”

“Summer. Her name was Summer.” There were tears in Vriska's eyes as she said it loud enough for everyone to hear, and the only response anyone gave was a quiet gasp from Tavros—as he was quite shocked that Vriska was touching that topic on her own. “And I want to hang something for her.”

Nepeta started to say something about a lack of child-sized stockings, but she was silenced by a hand motion by Aradia, who sat next to Vriska and hugged her. “We'll definitely hang something for her,” she said, squeezing her friend tightly. “We've got a bunch of blue ornaments, and we can write her name on one and hang that up to remember her. Sound good?”

“It's what she'd get if she was here, so yes. Sounds lovely.” Vriska sniffled, tears beginning to run down her cheeks. “We'll write her whole name on it, and we'll look at it and think of my little girl who was gone too soon. Summer Storm. Beautiful name for a beautifully tragic girl.” As she spoke, her words got quieter and quieter until she was back to her nearly silent voice. “It's perfect.”

On the other side of the room where the guys were standing, Equius and Sollux both looked at Tavros, who was shaking his head in shock. “You named your kid _that_?” Sollux asked, hints of disbelief in his voice. “What kind of name would that be for a living child?”

“It was Vriska's choice...she insisted on naming her after the circumstances of her birth and death, and since it happened in a summer storm...” He nearly collapsed from the shock, but the two guys kept him upright and helped him to a seat. “Thanks.”

“You're welcome, but you didn't argue the name? Really?”

He shook his head. “There was no point. She got to pick it and I had to accept it, especially with what had happened and all. If she had been born regularly I'm sure her name would have been something different.”

“We shouldn't criticize this, Sollux. That name was picked in a stressful time in their lives and holds meaning to them.” Equius, ever the voice of reason, placed a firm hand on Tavros' trembling shoulder. “We should just be supportive and accepting of that choice they made.”

“I for one think that it's a pretty name and it fits her, even if I never met her!” Aradia loudly announced, trying to keep the negative talk away from Vriska's ears. “And we are going to honor her like she's here watching over all of us. Which I'm sure she is. Why, I bet she's sitting in here right now, listening to us praise her and she's got to be so happy that she had such great parents in the moments she was alive!”

Although her words were supposed to be inspirational, they just caused Vriska to burst into loud crying, and once again everyone present was left to deal with fragile emotions of a broken woman who had been through so much and was trying to be so strong. Once the tears were dried and the extra ornaments were located, Vriska's wish was granted and they, as a group, decorated a single blue piece with the dead child's name, and hung it as close to the angel at the top of the tree as they possibly could while making it readable to everyone.

On Christmas Eve, that memorial got to bear witness to the parents of the dead little girl doing unspeakable things underneath the Christmas tree. As did the people who lived in the house and their almost always present visitors, as Christmas morning was one of those days that everyone got up early to open presents and be in each other's company; they were definitely not expecting to hear moans and screams and the rustling of tree branches as they entered the main room.

No one mentioned that they had seen it, but by the uncomfortable looks that Tavros and Vriska got for the rest of their visit, they could have easily guessed that they had been walked in on by everyone. The only person who got close to revealing that they knew what had gone on was Aradia, and that was by her asking if they were still comfortable sleeping on the pull-out couch bed, knowing that they might have been, but they were definitely more comfortable having sex on her floor under the tree than they were on the squeaky and springy couch.

“So are we ready to open some presents?” Sollux asked, trying not to laugh at how Aradia had asked what she had. “Or did everyone forget to bring something, just like last year.”

“Don't lose your head over gifts, Sollux! I made sure that I had something for everyone!” Nepeta fled from the room for a second, and came back with five bags in her arms. “I even ran out when I learned the guests would be here for the holidays and bought them something too!” As she doled out the presents, everyone else was left looking between themselves, wondering who would share a gift next.

“Mine are all on the counter in the kitchen, so I can say I bought things for this year.” Opening the gift Nepeta had just given him, Sollux smiled at how he was able to call everyone else out and not be a hypocrite. “Hey, wait, Nepeta, what is this?” He had revealed what was in the bag, and it looked to be nothing more than a silky garment. “Did you seriously buy me this?”

She nodded. “It's got bees on it.”

“It's underwear.”

“Bees, though. You said you liked it because there were bees and—“ She was cut off by everyone beginning to laugh, all of them having opened their gifts and watching the banter intently. “Oh come on! He said he liked it and I knew Aradia wouldn't buy it, because why would she buy him silky undies?”

“It's sort of, well, my job to buy him silky undies,” Aradia said in response, stifling a laugh, “and I sort of bought him a pair exactly like that. And he's wearing them right now.”

A fierce blush appeared on Nepeta's cheeks as she tried to come up with words to react. “Two pairs is better than no pair at all, so thank you very much for the thoughtful gift.” Sollux tossed the now-empty bag aside and set his new underwear on the table next to him. “What did she get all of you?”

“Not silky undies,” Vriska sarcastically replied, before giving a more straight answer: “Me and Tavros got picture frames filled with pictures of you guys.”

“And I got a new pair of sunglasses, since she accidentally broke the last pair I had.” Equius fidgeted a bit where he sat. “She is a very good friend for coming through on replacing those.”

Everyone turned their attention to Aradia, who was the only one whose gift hadn't been shared. “Oh, she just got me a girly thing. No big deal.” It wasn't until she was implored to answer once more by Sollux that she did. “Okay, fine, she bought me some special undies of my own. They have sheep on them.”

“Fucking hell, Nepeta. That's what I bought her.” He pounded his fist on the table, but there was no denying that Sollux was anything but mad. In fact, he was more amused than anything. “It's a good thing that I got her other things too.”

More laughter ensued, and everyone present was very, very thankful that such a great thing happened on the holiday. Otherwise, the only memorable part of the day would be what had occurred in the morning hours, and no one wanted to remember that as their Christmas experience.

* * *

Three days later, the residents of the house were woken up by a loud crashing noise, one that sounded much like an accident happening right outside of the home. As Aradia rushed to get herself decent enough to leave the bedroom and investigate, Sollux, under his breath, mentioned something about their guests and that it had to have something to do with them. He was correct, as they had yet again decided to have fun underneath the Christmas tree and had managed to knock it over in the process, resulting in the loud noise.

“Why did you two decide it was a good idea to fuck under the tree?” he asked the guilty parties, both of whom were wearing minimal clothing as they were interrogated. “Better yet, why did you two decide it was a good idea to do it more than once?”

“We only knocked it over this time...” Tavros said, looking very sheepish as he scratched his head and looked down at his feet. “Nothing bad happened before.”

Aradia, who was picking up shattered ornaments and trying not to cry, shared with the two the information she had almost let slip days before. “We walked in on you when you were doing this on Christmas morning. Why you thought sex that early in the morning was a good idea, who knows. But we saw it.”

“I'm so, so sorry. If we had known you knew we were doing this, we wouldn't have done it.” Vriska, her arms over her chest to cover it, looked between the angry Sollux and the upset Aradia, trying to decide who to emotionally appeal to more. “But, you know how it gets sometimes. You need a change of pace and get adventurous. Don't you know how that feels, friends?”

“No, we don't know. Most adventurous we ever got was the backseat of my car senior year.” Sollux snapped, before he began helping Aradia with the cleanup. “And that didn't destroy property that didn't belong to us.”

“We didn't think this would happen...”

With tears falling down her cheeks and broken glass in her hands, Aradia looked at her friends and spoke. “It's not so much that it happened, Tavros, as it is that you guys didn't care to keep your parts to yourselves while you were in our house. And you decided to make love under the tree, where there was a memorial to your dead child! Doesn't that bother you?”

“It didn't bother me before this, but I can see why it should.” He took a deep breath before walking to the couch with wobbly steps and sitting on the pulled-out bed. “She's probably judging us so hard for this. We failed her.”

“Poor little Summer, she had to watch us do that under what should have been her first tree.” Vriska too sat on the bed, grabbing her shirt on the way over and getting it on so she could freely move her arms once more. “Fuck, why can't we actually not be giant mistakes for once in our lives, huh? Why do we always have to fuck up like this?”

“If you two could manage to control your sex drives, we wouldn't be in this situation, and everyone could be peacefully sleeping still.” At that point, Sollux was beginning to get the tree back in its upright position, whatever decorations still on it intact. “But no, you had to go and do this. I knew I shouldn't have paid for this trip out here for you. It was bad from the moment it started, and I can't wait for it to be over.”

“Sollux!” Although she was crying, Aradia managed to raise her voice at the man she loved so dearly, scaring him into looking at her with wide eyes. “They just wanted to have fun, and while it was completely wrong of them, we shouldn't make them feel worse. They've had a pretty shitty year from what I've gathered. Don't make it worse.”

He sighed. “Yes, Aradia. I won't.” That was when he turned his words back to the two on the couch. “You're lucky the plan was for you to leave tomorrow anyway, or else your asses would be on the curb right now.”

“We know, we know,” Tavros mumbled, still looking incredibly small and sheepish, as he grabbed for his metal leg braces. “And we're sorry. We not only failed our friends, but our dead child too.”

Vriska's knees were both wrapped and she was pulling her pants on as her boyfriend spoke, but when she was done she added something to the conversation. “We won't ever let it happen again, that is, if you'll let us come back some time again.”

“We definitely will!” Aradia's voice drowned out whatever negative thing Sollux was trying to say. “Even though you broke my tree, you're still some of my best friends ever, and I'm not going to keep you away if you want to come back. In fact, I'd be happy if we made this a yearly thing!” Her tears were long gone and a smile had replaced her sadness as she continued. “Every year for the holidays you guys could come out here, and maybe one day you'll want to do something that isn't just sit around here and play games.”

“You mean go and visit our families.” The tone Tavros spoke with was still quiet, but it wasn't as solemn as his earlier voice had been. This one was filled with anger and disgust. “That won't happen for a long while. I don't plan on talking to my brother or parents until I have something they'd be proud of to tell them, and Vriska...we all know how she feels about her mom.”

“Sorry that I implied anything.” With the tree back in its upright position and all the broken ornaments now cleaned up, Aradia was back to her normal and chipper self, and she inspected what her and Sollux had just fixed. “Hey, would you look at that,” she said, pointing at a certain blue ball that seemed to be perfectly fine. “The memorial survived the fall.”

When Equius and Nepeta came over a few hours later, they were treated to the story of that eventful morning as well as a bawling Vriska, something about Aradia's last statement driving her to tears it took the good part of the day to stop.

* * *

It was a relatively nice day in early February, and Aradia was sitting out on a bench outside the local school where she volunteered some of her time to play with the children during their breaks. Her phone, which was in her pocket in case she was needed anywhere that wasn't there, began to vibrate and give off little jingles that signaled that someone was calling her. She checked to see who it was, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was Vriska, who she hadn't spoken to since her and Tavros had left the day after the Christmas tree incident. But since she was with the students, she couldn't take the call, and she ignored it.

Once she was safely home some time later, she decided it was for the best that she called her friend back and found out what was going on. “Hello?” the voice on the other side of the line answered. “Is this you, Aradia?”

“Sure is. You called me at a bad time earlier, but I can talk now. What's up?”

She hadn't been expecting to hear crying, but when she remembered that it was Vriska, the woman who was so broken just mentioning falling upset her, that she was talking to, things made a bit more sense. “I've made a big mistake,” Vriska said between sniffles. “A very big mistake and I know it happened at your house.”

“Aw, what do you mean? You didn't leave anything here, so it's not that. Did something happen that made Tavros mad? Did he leave you?”

“No, no, none of that. He might leave, though. I don't know.” There was a definite sense of fear in the voice she was listening to, and all Aradia wanted to do was hug her friend and tell her everything was going to be okay. When she asked again what Vriska meant by what she said, the answer she got was not one she was expecting at all. “I'm pregnant again, Aradia, and I don't know what to do.”

“Oh...wow.” It was all she could manage. She didn't know the full story about Summer and what had happened with her, but with the way Vriska was acting, she knew that it had to have had some effect on this. “You've got this. Just do what you did last time, except keep this one from tumbling down the stairs. That's all I can say.”

Vriska forced a laugh. “I wasn't planning on falling down those ever again. But I'm not telling Tavros, not until I've got a good way to. He was hit hard by losing the last one, and I don't want to upset him again.” She sighed, giving a few little sniffles before she continued to speak. “I just wanted to tell you first, since, well, this little thing did kind of happen on your floor...”

The laughter that ensued on both sides was genuine, and Aradia was actually happy to be the first to know about her friend's big announcement. After she swore not to tell anyone who wasn't Sollux, Equius, or Nepeta about it, they ended the call, and she was left sitting on her bed, just thinking about how difficult it must have been to be Vriska right then, to be faced with something she had just faced not long ago, and do what she had done.

It also made her mentally swear off having unprotected fun with Sollux until they could both be assured that they wouldn't end up the same way Tavros and Vriska had.


End file.
